Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

First of all thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers over the last year. We have decided to create a blog to have an outlet for anyone who is interested in updates on Lances condition a place to come and be informed. The title of the blog "A future and a hope" comes from Jeremiah 29:11, which is a verse that has given our family alot of comfort through these challenging times. Because as my Dad has said, no matter what happens we have already won! I would encourage you to pass on the location of this site to anyone that you may believe would be interested in updates. -Justin

Friday, November 1, 2013

Never so thankful....

Wow!!We can’t
believe it’s been almost a year since our last post!It must be a good sign right?Well, this is a big month for us, a month of
celebration and remembrance, as we look back 3 years ago on November 30th,
when Lance had his bone marrow transplant. We have had so much to be thankful
for, especially all of you who have continued in your prayers for Lance’s
healing and for our life to have some semblance of ‘normal’.

We just have to begin by saying, “God is so good!”We have seen our paths take us through some
dark days of wondering just where we would be at this point right now almost 3
years later.Even though we can’t say
everything is completely back to normal, we can say there have been some big praise-worthy
victories:1-Lance is STILL cancer free
as of his last bone marrow check from the spring 2-Lance’s GVH has started to
calm down (not so many “battles” over Lance’s blood) 3-Lance has been able to
lower his medication doses, especially with the steroids 4-We are seeing more
of the Lance we know and love, not just the spunky carefree Lance, but the Lance
who is now starting to remember things that others around him are forgetting
(No fair, I thought we were supposed to age together, here!) 5-Taking more trips
and doing a LOT more with the family AND enjoying it! 6-Getting sick and… getting
BETTER (many of you may remember our big fear was and still is at times for Lance’s immune system)
7-Doing more projects around the house (i.e. spending 4 consecutive hours
running outdoor pathway lights – this would have never happened even a year
ago!!)8-For blessing the two of us with
a long and wonderful marriage together, where the Lord’s presence has been a
daily witness.We could go on and on –
so much to be thankful for!It’s neat to
think about how our Blog states “A Future and a Hope” and here we are enjoying each day and the future that he has given us together!!

We are surrounded by so many wonderful caring people (many
of you who are probably reading this right now) and besides being asked “How is
Lance doing?” we also get asked “What can we pray for?”, so while we are
thankful for the many blessings, there are still concerns that will often
overwhelm our family. Because of Lance's lowered immune system and Chronic Graft vs Host disease we are still driving to Iowa City every four weeks to see the doctor and to get an IV to boost his immune system. They still have to keep a close eye on him. Lance has desired to
be completely steroid-free and while he is on a very low dose, it seems to be
one thing or another that either brings him back on the steroids, making it
harder to go off again.. Lance feels as he has gone down from over 200 pills a week after transplant to 180 last year and now to 120 pills a week that he is thinking more clearly so he would love to even be free of even more of his meds so please pray for this!! Also pray for Lance that even though he is able to spend 4 hours on a project, these tasks are few and far between and he would love to take on more without the side effects of fatigue and soreness. Pray for Lance’s continued strength
and positive attitude, in fact he’s so AWESOME at keeping a positive attitude
that I can’t imagine what we would do without it!! He presses forward each day in spite of fatigue or GVH issues and not giving up!! We have thought many times of the verse in
Hebrews 12:1 where it talks about how we can get so bogged down by everything
around us when we just need to let it go or “throw it down”, and to keep our eyes on
Jesus and “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” -- I read that the definition of perseverance is:
“persistence and tenacity, the effort required to do something and keep doing
it till the end” – and yes Lance’s picture should be right above it! We both take comfort in the fact that Our Loving God is the one who has marked out this race for us... and we can TRUST HIM TOTALLY! We are all SO proud of Lance, he has been
amazing through this entire ordeal.I
didn’t think I could love him anymore than I do, but I really do!

HALL FAMILY UPDATES….

Nathan and Nicole are in full family mode, from football
games to swim practice, they always have something to keep them going!Nicole is busy with her full-time job as a
Career Counselor for the Army Reserves and Nathan is continuing to make his
presence valuable at Medline, just reaching his 11th anniversary
with the company this week.Gavin, 10 is
in 5th grade, Helen, 9 is in 4th grade, Evie, 7 is in 2nd
grade and Gwenny 6 is in Kindergarten, all 4 at the same school!They will all be starting swim team next week
with Dad as their coach.Lance’s love for sports and natural gifts of coaching
have rubbed off!

Cory and Jamie are enjoying a busy life with Camryn, 2 and Hayden
who will be 5 on Thanksgiving. The kids keep
them on their toes with Camryn getting into everything and Hayden making sure
that Mom and Dad know! Jamie is still
with Medline and also works part time at Hy-Vee.Cory is also at Medline and has had a big
part this year in helping to start a Running Club in the city of Dubuque.He enjoys running and has gotten the rest of
the family involved and it’s easy to see that giving back to others is another
life lesson also seen from Lance.

Justin and Ashley have had a very
busy year!They started with Ashley
accepting a position as the Office Nurse Manager for the Cardiovascular Medical
Office that she had been working for, then Justin completing his Bachelor’s in electrical
engineering, then accepting a job with
John Deere, to buying a house in Waterloo!WOW!!They will be ready for a break!Dillan started Kindergarten this fall and has
excelled in every way!Chayce also
continues to amaze his parents daily with his wit and charm, more of Lance
showing through in each of the grandkids!

Elisabeth has also had a busy
year with a lot of changing and growing.She went from working full-time as an administrative assistant in a Financial Services Department
to attending school full-time at Emmaus Bilble College.The Lord
has shown many blessings in this endeavor (a story in itself....God Alone is the reason she is there!).And most exciting has been a reconnection with a friend, Erik, who had
previously gone to her church when they were little and then moved away for
several years.After he moved back, they
have shared a wonderful friendship and have started dating.Erik has already made a great impression on
many of the family members, or at least until he decided to warp the minds of
the young and unsuspecting nieces and nephews with his Chicago bears paraphernalia (only Vikings Fans here you know!!).Ironically though, Erik through his charm,
wits and good looks has shown himself to resemble a very important person in
Elisabeth’s life…uh-oh…..
One more reason to be thankful for Lance’s good health, keeping a careful eye
on his little girl….

Thank-you once again for keeping Lance and the rest of the
family in your thoughts and prayers, we lift Him up in His great glory that He
knows the plans he has for us all and that he WILL give us hope and a future.

1 comment:

LOVED getting this update!!! Continuing to pray for Lance to be able to get off his meds and back to full health and strength. God is able! Loved hearing all about the family! Miss everyone and wish we had more time to see all of you--but love seeing Lance's eye twinkle through so many of his kids and grandkids. :) Love you guys!!

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Lance and Penny

About Me

My name is Lance. I've been married for 32 years to my wife Penny I've enjoyed every minute of it am looking forward to 32 more. I'm proud to say she is aging much better than me. In fact one the nurses asked me the other night if she was my daughter. I didn't take that as an insult I think she looks good to!! I have three sons and a daughter, eight grandkids and if I could have picked my three daughter-in-laws I could not have done better. I know nothing about blogging or internet so I'm very greatful that my children are smarter than I am.